Explaining the Faith - Divine Mercy Sunday: Explained

welcome everybody to the national shrine of the divine mercy i'm father chris aylar and today we appreciate your patience as our live broadcast at 11am had to be delayed as we will pray in a moment we i was speaking with the father of an employee that has passed away and it's been a tragic situation for our marian family and we ask for your prayers for mark mark this morning took his life and we are very saddened praying for his family and i dedicate this divine mercy sunday to him and i was going to cancel this talk altogether but my provincial superior said no we want to make sure that there's not other souls that are troubled that don't have a chance to hear god's grace and mercy so he instructed me to do this and the father of mark god bless him stated that father chris i have but one request please ask the miriam helpers to pray for mark and um this was an employee that was a very good man and so we offer him up in prayers but we will try to get through this talk on the importance of divine mercy sunday and the grace probably any other topic i would not be doing tonight we would just have canceled but this is that important to celebrate divine mercy sunday tomorrow so let us begin with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we ask you to please have mercy on all of us for those who are troubled that they might find consolation physically emotionally or spiritually we ask that all those who are struggling with any suicidal tendencies that you may show them the beauty and the and the gift that you have given through your grace and that you are that you love them and that you care for them and us as well we ask that mark you have mercy on this employee of ours and allow him to share in your divine promise of eternity and we ask all this through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen okay so as i mentioned i think this would be the only topic if this was not the eve of divine mercy sunday i would not be doing this so let us see the importance of this day tomorrow and so that anybody who is hurting may be healed before any other tragedies this is the benefit of being a marian helper this is the beauty of being a part of our marian family we pray for each other and i ask for your prayers for mark i ask for your prayers for his family i know you guys are prayer warriors i know so many of you by name early screen name as i always say and so we are praying for you and thank you for your prayers for mark eternal restaurant unto him o lord and let perpetual light shine upon him may his soul and the soul of all the faithful departed through the mercy of god rest in peace amen okay thank you for joining us today we will be speaking about how to receive the graces of divine mercy sunday as you saw on the slide divine mercy sunday explained such a powerful grace now let's show our next slide and in this next slide we have a powerful quote to ponder jesus said souls perish in spite of my bitter passion but i am giving them the last hope of salvation that is the feast of my mercy if they will not adore my mercy they will perish for all eternity secretary of my mercy write tell all souls about this great mercy of mine because the awful day the day of my justice is near paragraph 965 you know there's so much a warning in our lord to not let this grace pass by he said if you don't pass through the doors of my mercy you must pass through the doors of my justice and as i always say i don't know about you but i need the doors of mercy i'm not making it through the doors of justice and so john paul ii said there's nothing the world needs more than divine mercy and he consecrated the world to it you know what is divine mercy okay you've heard me say in some of our other talks all these other explanations of divine mercy it's loving the unlovable and forgiving the unforgivable it's a particular mode of love that when love encounters suffering it takes action to do something about it but one of the things that i wanted to talk about that i have not mentioned before is the trinity in the sense that the perfect love between the father son and the holy spirit when that perfect love that was always shared within the trinity poured outside of itself we have divine mercy because that mercy is divine it's from god and when that perfect love between the father son and the holy spirit remember the holy spirit is simply the love between the father and the son father and the son the love between them is so great it actually is the holy spirit but when that love poured outside of itself we got mercy now what do you mean father poured outside of itself creation when he created man and the angels in the universe and so this is powerful then very important now this is what mercy is it can be effective with an a meaning that you have pity for the plight of another but you don't do anything about it you're just sorry like kind of like we see on television or mercy can be effective taking steps then to actually do something about the suffering and so this is important now love is therefore not just words remember mercy is the highest form of love that particular mode of love that when love encounters suffering it takes action to do something about it it goes from effective meaning g i'm sorry to effective with an e meaning i'm going to do something about it and this is what we have in mercy so love is not just words but actions i can tell you all day long i love you but if you call upon me and i'm never there for you those actions speak loudly so god wanted to show us his love through action what action did his mercy take his love poured out into creation then we got broken so what action did he take then he sent his son for redemption then then after we redeemed what action did he take holy spirit sanctified us a whole other talk but that's the power and so the incarnation of god becoming a man was the ultimate effective mercy becoming action so divine mercy is not just something but somebody the very person of jesus himself that's why our title is the national shrine of the divine mercy not just the national shrine of divine mercy that would mean the attribute adjective like you know god is merciful but we are the national shrine of the divine mercy meaning jesus the person himself now jesus said i have a new book out called understanding divine mercy and people always say to me father you can't understand divine mercy you're correct if you're talking about god and his essence but jesus said to saint faustina that we can come to know him through his attributes so here is where the attribute now not the person the adjective god is merciful his attribute of mercy can help us to come to know him as the person the divine mercy what do i mean all right all god's attributes are infinite he is omnipotent all-powerful omniscient all-knowing but god's mercy is his greatest attribute why because it's the most important one for us yeah that's good for me that god's omniscient and knows everything but it's way better for me that he's all merciful and that is my salvation the fact that all god is all-knowing isn't going to give me salvation in fact it could prevent me from salvation but the fact that god is all merciful that leads me to salvation so that's why it's his greatest attribute in regard to us now jesus exclaimed he wanted a feast to honor his mercy which the world had forgotten about there actually was ancient feasts saint augustine used to talk about the saint the sunday in white and he had forgotten about these and he said that it had to be on the sunday after easter why why did jesus say this feast has to be on the sunday after easter because it completes what we call the octave now i am going to explain a little duplicate from my homilies this week but don't hang up don't close out because this is just a little recap and then i'm going to go into new stuff but stay with me for the recap father i've already heard this okay yeah i mentioned it in the homily or two but we're going to recap it and then we're going to go on to new stuff all right now here's the thing by completing by jesus saying i want this feast on the eighth day he's completing an octave a big feast now when a feast was so big for the jews that it couldn't be celebrated in one day it was too big they celebrated it over eight days and this is what jesus is saying i want divine mercy on the eighth day there's a huge meaning here all right now we have only two octaves left in the church we used to have many but only two are left since the reform and the missile and that is christmas and easter for instance the christmas octave begins on christmas day the 25th and eight days later ends on january 1st mary the mother of god it's all one day it's called christmas and the reason it's all one day is because you can't separate jesus the beginning of the act of christmas from mary the end of the octave january 1st they're connected you can't separate jesus from mary so this is what we celebrate in christmas now the biggest octave we have is easter now this is the perfect example of the perfect feast because easter is the biggest celebration we have in the church now what is the perfect number in the bible the answer is seven so why did jesus ask for divine mercy eight days after easter so he said okay you have easter sunday and i want divine mercy sunday eight days later why didn't he say seven days later and therefore the perfect number to the jews well seven was the perfect number in regards to time or creation but but the perfect number to the jews in regards to eternity not time on earth but eternity meaning after your time on earth is the number eight so jesus said i want this easter octave to start with easter sunday excuse me so that's day one easter octave day one monday and that's sunday so you have easter sunday day one monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday divine mercy sunday now this eight days is important because while seven is the perfect number for time and creation eight represents the jewish eternity now as i said easter is day one and what happened on easter jesus opened the door to heaven we were all redeemed jesus on easter sunday brought us a new creation we are redeemed the next seven days are symbolic of our time on earth creation time and that is symbolic of your life so on easter sunday day one jesus opened the door to heaven the next seven days are symbolic of your time here on earth your pilgrimage like the jews in the desert that is your time on earth now when the jews were in the desert what were they looking for the promised land we too are wandering around in our seven days on earth looking for heaven that is our promised land now easter octave as i said is easter sunday to divine mercy sunday and this completes easter it fulfills easter and listen to this since jesus opened the door to heaven everybody's redeemed but will everybody be saved no some souls are lost because they choose to be now here's the thing the fact that jesus opened the door to heaven his work is not yet finished until we walk through that door at the end of our life on the eighth day so you see easter is beautiful nothing else happens without it it's the high point because without jesus redeeming us and open the door to heaven nothing else happens so we absolutely need to then keep going through our seven days and then after our seven days we enter into eternity that eighth day is divine mercy sunday now here's the thing once we go through it we are saved and once we are saved we've now completed or fulfilled the reason for easter sunday now on easter sunday we are redeemed that means everybody has a chance to be saved but on divine mercy sunday we are all saved who choose to accept the grace you enter in through the door of heaven so aquinas thomas aquinas says there are two perfections and he said that actually and this goes back to augustine that actually the eighth day of the octave is actually the greatest day saint augustine actually said that the eighth day is the compendium of the days of mercy and the compendium of the days of mercy means it's the great day why again because it is a perfection of easter it fulfills it why okay st thomas aquinas said everything has a perfection and then a second perfection what does he mean by that our first perfection is the fact that we exist you're a human being you walk you talk you communicate you love you work you pray you have a perfection as a human being but the second and greater perfection is when something becomes that which it was created for so when an acorn becomes an oak tree it's reached its perfection it becomes that which it was created for if you crush an egg corn an acorn has a certain perfection because it exists but if you crush it with a hammer before it becomes an oak tree it didn't realize its full potential it didn't become what it was created to become an oak tree we too are humans but why were we created baltimore catechism to know god to love him and serve him and be with him forever in heaven once we achieve that we have become what we were created for that is why they said that divine mercy or excuse me the eighth day is the greatest of the days now it doesn't replace easter they're the same day the whole eight days of the octave are celebrated as one day not separate days it completes it it fulfills it it's like the front end and the back end it's like together now here's what's important now saint augustine called it the greatest day all right now let me read you this this is a quote from saint thomas the apostle in some of the earliest writings we have called the apostolic constitutions oh lord basically well actually you know what um through saint faustina we could see that saint thomas the apostle was the earliest example of this in writing a liturgical document called the apostolic constitutions and this is where we say quote this is from thomas the apostle after eight days following the feast of easter this is thomas the apostle talking the earliest writings we have called the apostolic constitutions after eight days following the feast of easter let there be another feast observed with honor on the eighth day itself on which he gave me thomas who was hard of belief full assurance by showing me the print of the nails and the wound made by his side in his side by the spear now listen to this saint gregory of nancy enzen a great church doctor one of the greatest also supported this feast by declaring the octave of easter is even greater than the feast of easter though it takes nothing away from it and again i don't claim this because i say they're the same they're part of the same octave the same day but he says it's greater than easter although it takes nothing away from the greatness of the day of easter and resurrection he said here's why easter sunday is the boundary between death and life a creation but the eighth day the octave is the fulfillment of what easter is all about perfect life and eternity a second creation more admirable and more better than the first that's powerful stuff all right now before we can enter into heaven however god bless mark right before we enter into heaven we must be spotless like a jewish groom who wants his bride to be spotless before he takes her home to meet his mother and his father we need to be spotless now who is the groom you've heard me say this jesus who is the bride we are the church all right so on the eighth day jesus will come to claim his bride what is your eighth day the day of your death you finished your seven day pilgrimage on your eighth day you die you enter into eternity and jesus is going to claim his bride and want to take you back to meet god as father god the father mary is mother but there may be stains all right there might be stains on this wedding garment of ours called our soul that might prevent us from getting into heaven now i think i missed a couple slides of st thomas and saint gregory of nenzianzen so if mark didn't get brother mark didn't get those up that's okay let's go to the next slide when i ask the question if that stain is on our wedding garment how do we get rid of it look on your screen confession this is the confessional now there may be two stains on our wedding garment as i said the soul and this may prevent us from getting to heaven now our first stain is sin and that wipes away in the confessional that wipes away if this is in our confessional that we can give and get freed from all sin when we come out of the confessional we are forgiven we are guaranteed forgiveness our sin is forgiven if we have a valid confession now here's the question is the priest the one who forgives your sins yes actually it is the priest who forgives your sins now people say no father that's not true actually it is matthew 18 18 john 16 19. excuse me i should say matthew 16 19 john 20 23 whose sins you forgive are forgiven whose sins you retain are retained you see when you have ultimate authority which jesus did on earth you have the power to delegate it you have the power to delegate it and jesus gave that power to the first priests who then ordained the next priest and gave them the power since they had the power to forgive sins delegated from jesus who had ultimate power when they ordained the next priest they had the power to forgive sins now the grace doesn't come from them it only comes from god but it goes through the priests if you have ultimate authority you have the power to delegate it now all sins can be forgiven in the confessional all sins except one sin against the holy spirit all other sins as i always say lying stealing abortion murder all other sins can be forgiven but one cannot sin against the holy spirit you know what that sin is not asking for mercy so when we go to confession our sins are guaranteed forgiven when that priest raises his hand and says i absolve you in the name of the father son and the holy spirit you are guaranteed forgiveness or jesus wasn't telling the truth when he said whose sins you forgive are forgiven but what about the punishment for our sins what about the punishment does the punishment stay or remain what i mean by punishment are the consequences of our sins now the eternal punishment to sin is gone hell aka hell wiped away when you go to come out of the confessional you no longer face the fires of hell as long as you are in a state of grace and you don't commit another mortal sin this is guaranteed because the sacraments are guaranteed grace when the priest says i absolve you heaven has to follow it because jesus said whose sins you forgive are forgiven so if you go to the priest and he says i forgive you jesus said if you forgive them they are forgiven in heaven and so the priest when he forgives you it's guaranteed now that eternal punishment is gone but what about the temporal punishment this may remain sin has consequences and we must make restitution for those after we sin it's kind of like breaking the window and then the boy is grounded afterwards because his dad said don't play baseball in the front yard he does breaks the window then the dad says you're forgiven but you got to pay for this out of your allowance there's a temporal punishment now if we don't if we don't make restitution then we owe back this punishment now we have a choice we can remove that punishment in this world or we can have to do it in purgatory you don't want to wait now how do we do it in this world there's several ways i'm just going to focus on one we can do a plenary indulgence to forgive the sin and remove the punishment now let's look at our next slide okay now our next slide shows examples of plenary indulgences that you can do every day again what's a plenary indulgence it forgives sins and all the punishment but let's look at an example if you do adoration for 30 minutes you can get a plenary indulgence if you do stations of the cross any day of the year not just lent you can get a plenary indulgence if you pray a rosary inside a church or chapel or with another person you can get a plenary indulgence and if you're reading scripture for 30 minutes you could do this on your couch you can get a plenary indulgence but here's what's what needs to be known look at our next slide there are four conditions so let's put up our next slide there's four conditions for a plenary indulgence that we must do to get it you have to ask for it right so one you receive holy communion now before that really number two should be one you go to confession about 20 days before or after you do the indulgence act like praying a rosary or doing the stations or reading the bible or doing adoration you have then 20 days that you can go to confession for that one indulgence one confession covers up to 20 indulgent stays that you do before or after now if you're not in a state of grace you've got to go before if you're in a state of grace you could go before or after now this confession is a requirement you need to do it now third pray for the intentions of the holy father that's usually in our father hail mary glory be but notice the fourth one no attachment to sin even vino now that's not easy that's not easy so in these that last condition sinks most people good luck because we all struggle with sin we all have problems with sin this is a struggle i'm impatient sometimes i'm gluttonous sometimes so what do we do if god comes for us as jesus comes for us as his groom on the eighth day and we're the bride and he finds us with stain either sin if you've got that get to the confessional or punishment you're not ready to go to heaven revelation i think it's 21 27 says nothing impure will enter heaven so we got to get cleaned up now if we've got our sin forgiven in the confessional we still might have punishment now i just told you a way to get rid of it it's called a plenary indulgence but it's not easy because a lot of us have attachment to sin so when jesus comes for his bride on the eighth day when we each die he's going to be finding not a lot of us ready and so what does he do he wants us all to be ready he doesn't want some of us to be ready and so what does he do he gives us one more way let's look at our slide divine mercy sunday this is incredible and in that gift of divine mercy sunday we have something very special this is something and let's look at our next slide the extraordinary promise now right after divine mercy sunday let's look at our next slide called the feast of divine mercy here is this extraordinary promise that jesus gives a remedy for those people who are still struggling with attachments brokenness i still have some addiction i still have you know my temper i still have lustful thoughts how can we enter heaven god gives us another way he wants us in heaven so bad he makes this promise on the feast of divine mercy and let's read this promise on that day what day divine mercy sunday the very depths of my tender mercy are open i pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of my mercy here it is don't miss it this is the extraordinary promise the soul that will go to confession and receive holy communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment so any of us any of us can crawl out of the gutter go to confession receive holy communion and receive a complete wipe meant cleaning totally cleaning if we do our souls are wiped completely clean and this day is tomorrow this day is tomorrow all sin and punishment is completely gone never will our souls be cleaner other than the moment of our original baptism than they are on divine mercy sunday and then we can enter into heaven then when jesus comes on the eighth day for his bride we are ready our spouse can come get us and take us home this is it all right now you need to do something though now jesus did not give this command i'm gonna show you the next slide is something to do to receive the grace because we must ask for it and people like father how do i ask for it i'm going to tell you right now let's put up our next slide this is a prayer to receive the graces of divine mercy sunday now please this is on tape when you watch it you can we're going to post it after it's here live it'll remain on tape so you can push pause at the end of the live broadcast and it will stay on your screen you can copy it down or read it but hear or this or your own prayer it doesn't have to be this exact prayer i wrote this but you can do your own let's read what jesus says or excuse me what the prayer to request this grace says lord jesus christ son of the living god you promised saint faustina that the soul that has been to confession i have and the soul that receives holy communion with trust and divine mercy i have will receive the complete forgiveness of all sins and punishment lord please give me this grace jesus i trust in you this is a powerful prayer and now let's take just 36 seconds or whatever it is to watch a quick clip of a video of father seraphim talking about what our lord wants in this devotion called divine mercy let's take a quick look at father seraphim god rest his soul too so what do you think the lord is really asking us to do in this devotion father i believe what our lord is really asking is that we concentrate on his great love that he did not hesitate to give his life for us and this will prompt us to respond to his love to us and i think we have to keep in mind what the real meaning of devotion is it's not just pious practice devotion means that you are given with your whole life to someone for what he means to you and this is what we must understand here oh god bless you father seraphim we miss you too you know a lot of people will ask well father in that promise it says go to confession and receive holy communion i got two questions people say to me what if i can't get to the church what if i'm quarantined or sick or the church is closed okay instead of confession you make an act of contrition just telling god that you're sorry and that you'll try to do better amend your life leave sin behind change what you do and live following him secondly people say well father what about holy communion okay if you can again get to the church because it's closed or if you cannot leave your house because you're quarantined make a spiritual communion just telling god to come into your heart as if you did receive him in the blessed sacrament unite with you be united with you just like you were in holy communion now this is why it could apply to even non-catholics because even non-catholics although they don't have the guaranteed grace of our sacraments we have it guaranteed that's why you want to be catholic but god doesn't shut his mercy out from non-catholics if they make an act of contrition just telling god they're sorry and they repent and they ask to be united with him in their heart kind of like we are guaranteed in communion they too can ask for this grace on this day now remember though this extraordinary grace is only for yourself people say well i want to give it to holy soul no a plenary indulgence can be given for a holy soul or yourself but this promise of divine mercy sunday is only for ourselves all right now the church does however offer a plenary indulgence on divine mercy sunday i know this gets confused if you do an act of mercy or some act of devotion such as generate venerating the image or praying the chaplet you can get a plenary indulgence also offered on this day now however people say i'm confused father they are different both give complete forgiveness of sins and punishment the difference is the plenary indulgence has the condition you can have no attachment to sin whereas the extraordinary promise does not it just simply says come to confession receive holy communion there's no other conditions anybody can receive this grace you especially the catholics who go to the sacraments it's just basic it's not a magic wand or a rabbit's foot it's basically jesus calling you back to the sacraments this is powerful so what i do do a two for one tomorrow do an active veneration of the image or pray the chaplet and ask for a plenary indulgence offer that for a holy soul then at the same time having been to confession or make an act of contrition and receive holy communion or make a spiritual act of communion ask for the grace of the prayer we just read lord give me the grace you said the soul that goes to confession i have the soul that receives all the communion i just did give me this grace and you'll get the extraordinary promise of complete forgiveness of sin and punishment for yourself so you can do it two for one tomorrow you could do a pioneer indulgence for a holy soul and the extraordinary promise for yourself this is incredible only god could be so great so you know to finish on this what is the difference between a plenary indulgence and the extraordinary promise well first of all the plenary indulgence both requires confession but in the plenary indulgence it has to be within 20 days divine mercy sunday is just sometime near the feast where you're in a state of grace it doesn't have a daytime limit or a number of days limit now next the indulgence is given by the church in her authority that's good but divine mercy sunday grace this extraordinary promise was given directly by god right through saint faustina all right here's another one in a plenary indulgence it's the removal of all temporal punishment due to sins that you've already been forgiven for thank you that you've confessed whereas divine mercy sunday removes the sins when you go to confession but all the punishment for every sin you've ever committed even the sins you forgot to confess it's greater than a plenary indulgence finally the indulgence you have to have the attachment or excuse me the condition of no attachment to sin even vino and you know what divine mercy sunday says even with imperfect contrition or we're still struggling with attachments we receive it it's like a second baptism never will our souls be cleaner than other than the moment of divine mercy sunday all right now i'm almost done here we're going to finish within an hour today a little shorter talk but you know father roshitsky made a powerful statement and he said ordinarily only the sacrament of baptism affects in the soul complete forgiveness of sins and punishment reception of the holy eucharist in a state of grace ordinarily remits only vino said remember it's forgiven in the mass while strengthening the soul both against venial and mortal sin so in other words baptism forgives the sin and the punishment but the eucharist only venial sin now he says on mercy sunday however holy communion received worthily now takes on the power of baptism so instead of just giving normally the forgiveness of venial sins it also does what baptism does and forgives sins and all punishment and he says when we receive it worthily and with trust god's mercy pours out upon the soul a complete renewal of baptismal grace wow all right last page we can prepare for divine mercy sunday basically i should say we can prepare for union with god every day in this world through the mass you've heard me say before the mass is the wedding feast of the lamb and when we come up the aisle for holy communion you've heard me say we are the bride who's waiting for us at the altar the groom you've heard me say when the bride and groom that night of the marriage that's consummated the groom enters into the bride same with us at holy communion the groom jesus literally through the eucharist enters us to into us the bride and at the altar we meet him now this is the promise of divine mercy sunday it's basically taking you back to the sacraments that you receive him in the sacraments so when he comes as that groom for you the bride at the end of your life the eighth day symbolized by divine mercy sunday you're cleansed you're purified you're without stain of sin this is incredible now forgiveness this is now i'm going to skip change gears here a little bit people don't understand the power of confession which is one of the requirements for divine mercy sunday and i want to say this forgiveness of sin is actually a greater act according to the theologians than all of the creation of the universe do you know that when you walk into that confessional for one confession and you come out you're like oh okay do you know that a greater act just happened than the creation of the entire universe you know why because it is an act with an eternal effect it affects you all the way into eternity creation doesn't creation stops in this world so how incredible is that that confession is greater then creation this is thomas aquinas so when you go into that confessional what just happened when you were forgiven is a greater act in the creation of the universe because it has an eternal effect the effect goes into eternity creation of the universe does not go into eternity and so confession is a greater act and do you know confession is actually greater than an exorcism because it's a sacrament guaranteed grace whereas an exorcism is just a sacramental people like father i gotta drive a thousand miles to a priest who can exercise me confession is actually greater this is why our lord on divine mercy sunday it's simply a return to the sacraments it's not a magic wand it's not a rabbit's foot it's a return to the sacraments this is beautiful so it's not just forgiveness of sin but also punishment and it's god meeting our needs his mercy which mercy becomes it's effective meaning it has pity but now god's mercy becomes effective in the incarnation and now jesus becomes the divine mercy the living person this is amazing his mercy you know how incredible are we to receive this grace and on this one day tomorrow to have it even that much more powerful if it couldn't be powerful enough it's already infinitely powerful but our lord adds to that the complete forgiveness of also all sin you know in many ways jesus used saint faustina and i want to quote one quick and we've only got about 10 minutes left but i think it's worth mentioning dr robert stackpole who works for us here as a theologian actually did some of his work in in grad school on whether or not divine mercy is quote unquote optional or not and what he pointed out in the missile is very powerful do you know the roman missal it uses the latin word seoul scu if i remember him saying correctly and that was translated into english to mean or now here's the problem many priests will open up the missal on divine mercy sunday and what does it say the second sunday of easter or divine mercy sunday now they take that to mean well it's optional i can celebrate it or not but thomas aquinas talks about words that are equivocal and universal now for instance if i had for lunch today an apple or an orange i'm talking about two different things but what's parked out in that parking lot is that a car or an automobile you see the word is equivocal it could mean multiple things and so or it could mean the same thing so let me give you an example of what dr robert stackpole said it actually should say the proper translation is really divine mercy sunday namely excuse me the second sunday of easter namely divine mercy sunday or he says the second sunday of easter that is divine mercy sunday amazing you know the sacred congregation for divine worship in april of 2000 formalized the declaration of divine mercy sunday and listen to this and by its inclusion in the roman missal made it binding through the universal church pray for your priests if they're not speaking on mercy tomorrow because they should it's a beautiful day the readings do as well all right we got just a little bit left let's look at our next slide here is a picture of john paul and this picture here is a beautiful gift that he was to the church and john paul ii canonized her in the year 2000 at that time he had a meeting with sumerian priests and brothers now i only got the second hand because i wasn't a marian but he said that many of the reasons that he was made pope he believed was to carry on this mission of mercy basically to canonize saint faustina and to institute the feast of divine mercy now what he actually did say and he was quoted was this is the happiest day of my life that's what dave cain told me our former editor a beautiful statement you think of all the things that pope john paul did all he wrote all he said all he did and he says divine mercy sunday or the day of the declaration and the canonization of saint faustina was the happiest day of his life wow so anyway him and saint faustina definitely brought divine mercy to the world father seraphim actually did a lot to complete it and you know saint faustina wrote about divine mercy sunday seeing her canonization and there's a passage in the diary that you may not be familiar with when she saw what we believe was her own canonization she described that she saw the holy father and she was seeing this vision and she said it says in the diary between the altar and the holy father she saw saint peter and saint peter said something to john paul well i'm sorry the holy father we know now it was john paul but she didn't and after that right after that he declared the feast of divine mercy so could it have been possibly a confirmation for the holy father to declare it that day we don't know but i think it's a beautiful passage in the diary now here's the one thing too also do you know when john paul two died and cardinal jeevich one of his right-hand men for years came to our shrine a few years ago and i remember talking with him and he he told the story of john paul i don't know if many people realize they always say well he died the day before divine mercy you know actually he had already celebrated saturday morning mass and he wasn't planning on celebrating mass again until the following day divine mercy sunday and john cardinal jeeves said it was put on his heart to celebrate mass with john paul and he said at first he ignored it and then the prompting of the holy spirit kept coming and then he said yeah and he celebrated but by this time it was past 5 30. father kaz is with us in the back i think it's like 8 o'clock father kaz or 8 30 or something and he celebrated mass for divine mercy sunday with john paul and john paul received holy communion and passed into eternity like 25 minutes later what a beautiful gift that was to the church so to finish here's a couple questions we always get and i want to finish with a couple of these how is it that there's not a contradiction between god's justice and his mercy here i want to go back to father seraphim please pray for our church we have seemed to become factioned or we seem to have the left side and the right side and although the lord says the right hand shouldn't know what the left hand is doing they seem to get into each other's way because the left hand or the one side of the church is all about god's mercy that could lead to presumption we have to realize that it's not a free ticket to sin we must have rectification of the will we must be willing to change our lives to leave sin behind and make a firm amendment to follow christ as a disciple divine mercy is not a free ticket to sin meaning well you know i'm going to keep cheating on my taxes and and you know embezzling my from my company or having my affair and you know i'll get this grace it's pretty good we don't want to be presumptuous on the other side let us not be only justice where there's no room for god's mercy god is just but he is mercy and i want to take these words from father seraphim father seraphim said there's no contradiction between god's justice and mercy he said of course the greater the sinner the greater right that he has to god's mercy this is right in the diary but here's what father seraphim said and i thought this was interesting of course we know that sin requires death because that's the wage of sin and jesus paid that wage we know that and that was the justice god's justice was met when christ paid the debt on the cross the wage of sin is death jesus paid it but what was the result of that action was mercy now here's what father seraphim says and i'm quoting him god rest his soul but father seraphim told me as i was scribbling notes one night at dinner that god's justice demands that we be holy perfect and merciful but only god has all three of those so how could god's justice demand that we be holy perfect and merciful if only god has all three of those so he looked at me at the table he says so how do we how do we explain this he said but his mercy is the key as father seraphim said his mercy is the only way we can become perfect and holy so he lifts us up through his mercy he elevates us in perfection what did we say was the greatest perfection that father seraphim taught us is when we become what we were created to be to know god to love him and serve him to be happy with him forever in heaven so he said that we are lifted up by god's mercy to be perfect then we can be holy as he is holy now we've met his justice by being merciful i'm sitting there like how come i don't think of these things father sarah that's why he was who he was so it doesn't contradict because he gives the soul what it wants and what it deserves so his mercy is his justice his mercy tempers his justice he never gives us though what we fully deserve he gives us what we want and if the you know you talk about what we deserve that's another question because let's look at our next slide and i've only got two to go in paragraph 1146 he says i cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to my compassion but on the contrary i justify him notice just justify him in my unfathomable and unscrutable mercy let's look at our next slide after that this is why jesus said and this is paragraph 1160 i have all eternity for punishing so i am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners but woe to them if they do not recognize this time of my visitation and that leads to the next slide diary 998 i am giving mankind the last hope of salvation that is recourse to my mercy so let us watch one last 30-second video of father seraphim and have him explain to you that it prepares us for christ's return this is a powerful statement that father sarah from wrapped up in 36 seconds let's take a look at that video real quick since the whole message of divine mercy through sister faustina is to prepare the world for christ's return he's got his church which is his bride has to be without spot or wrinkle and in this way we have the church prepared for the return of the lord which according to uh the revelation of fascina is in a way imminent uh but it's the sacraments that hasten the day of the lord's return as the scripture scholars point out to us [Music] so god rest his soul father seraphim our mentor our teacher our patriarch and our way to learn more about divine mercy so in that he has a lot of wisdom that is preparing us for christ's return why again so that we can be that spotless bride as he said in the video christ is coming on the eighth day eight represents eternity when you come up this isle you are the bride who's waiting for you the groom and at the end of our seven day pilgrimage called life we will enter into the eighth day called eternity the octave is day one easter the next seven days are symbolic of our period called walking through life in this valley of tears but on the eighth day eighth day we will enter into eternity and it is on that day that he comes for his bride and like any jewish man he wants his bride to be spotless and on that one day we can be spotless on that one day we can wipe away all stain on our wedding garment our soul of sin get to confession and the punishment that is due to sin will be wiped away as father seraphim says like a second baptism it's not a second baptism we don't get baptized twice but it's like a second baptism and in that is an incredible grace please don't let this pass by tomorrow if you've been tonight to the vigil mass you've already received holy communion and you've already been to confession so you're in a state of grace make that prayer we showed you just asking god for the complete forgiveness of sin and punishment now if you're going tomorrow same thing after having been to confession so you're in a state of grace or if you're home and you're not able because of quarantine make an act of contrition then receive holy communion if you are not able to get to church it's closed or you're quarantined make a spiritual act of communion that we talked about then you can also say lord please give me this grace and you will be cleansed as father seraphim said unlike any other time than your original baptism incredible so i had a few questions that were sent to me before the talk between when we postponed it this morning i'd like to answer just a couple father can confession be any time before divine mercy sunday or does it have to be on divine mercy sunday no it can be before again as long as you're in a state of grace don't receive unworthily but make yourself catechism 1452 says if you're not available to the confessional you can't get there make a spiritual act of contrition and then have the intent to go back to confession when next available very powerful so yes confession can be before as long as you're in a state of grace do you know saint faustina she went on the saturday before she didn't go to confession on divine mercy sunday so please don't think that has to be a requirement now communion has to be either tonight on the vigil or tomorrow any mass not just a 3 pm prayer service but any mass next question i got father does this grace cover only the sins of our past or can it also cover the future no unfortunately it doesn't work that way if you fall back into the gutter you got to go back to the showers so when we would finish football practice when i was in high school or wrestling practice we'd hit the showers we'd get cleaned up and then some of us would still start throwing the football out on the and the lot next to the school and sometimes it would turn into tackle again you have to go all the way back and get in the showers again so yeah unfortunately you can't have this apply the rest of your life it covers it cleanses you from everything of your past as long as you have that rectification of the will but if you go back and play in the mud you got to get back in the showers that is confession and then hopefully next divine mercy sunday all right two more questions father what if my church is closed we'll kind of just answer this what if my church is closed or i'm not able to get to the uh to confession or communion again make an act of contrition or an act of spiritual communion asking god to forgive your sins or to come into your heart in spiritual communion to be united with him as if you did receive him sacramentally powerful and then finally the last question is so father it could this also apply to non-catholics okay another question that i steal from father seraphim father serephin says yes it can apply to non-catholics i mentioned this at a homily on wednesday and i got an email that said father this is wrong you can't be telling people jesus specifically said it's for catholics let's be a little careful here yes as catholics we have the guaranteed grace in confession and communion so our grace is guaranteed through the sacraments but god's mercy is for everyone if you are a non-catholic do the same thing make an act of contrition telling god you're sorry and an act of spiritual communion unite with me lord in the same way and father seraphim used to teach that therefore the grace is available to everyone so god bless you all and thank you very much it's been an honor to be here and you know thank you for your prayers for the repose of the soul of father seraphim and today for mark as i talked about god bless him and his father asked please father chris bring in the marian helper army please ask for the prayers for mark and we're thankful that you did god bless all of you that's why we're marrying helpers 100 000 new members to this marian army since covid began and that's the power of prayer god bless you and thank you in fact as a parting gift to you on divine mercy sunday brother mark can you show the last slide um i just finished a book called understanding divine mercy and even though i explained we can't totally understand divine mercy god said in my essence you can't understand me but you can come to know me through my attributes that's mercy we're offering us divine mercy sunday special so please take a look at the book there on your screen you can get a copy of this book right now for any donation this is our divine mercy sunday special so for any donation you can get a copy of this book sent to you simply call 1-800-460 and order the copy you can get it for any donation plus five dollars for shipping it's a little shipping fee and any amount that you wish to pay so whatever you can afford if you can't god bless you let me know send me an email if you can't afford anything god's been blessing us we'll send you a copy but you can get it right now for any donation or visit online at thedivinemercy.org udm for understanding divine mercy so hopefully you'll take advantage of that grace and share it with your loved ones so again on this very somber and day that we need god's mercy leading into the ultimate day of mercy we also ask for all of you who are suffering at home in any way emotionally spiritually or physically that god's mercy will shower down upon you too know that you're in our prayers that's the beautiful thing of being a marian helper is we pray for each other so when we are in need and we need prayers you're there and when your need and you're in prayers you guys text me you call me you email me and you sent comments online and we're praying for you so the lord is great and tomorrow is the greatest of days so may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen and happy divine mercy sunday hi i'm father chris ayler and i'm excited to tell you about the completion of my newest project it's been a long time in the making it's called understanding divine mercy my new book from marian press that finally in one place i feel gives you the all the answers of everything you need to know about god's divine mercy in fact it answers what is divine mercy who is saint faustina and what message did god give her for the world how about the feast of divine mercy and what do you have to do to receive the graces that jesus promises on this one day of the year we talk about the meaning of the image and how to pray the naveena and how to understand the chaplet and what to do in the hour of mercy and much much more answering questions like why would a merciful god allow such suffering so please we hope that you'll pick up a copy of this book for you and your loved ones because if you get the understanding of what god's mercy is you will understand why jesus said it's mankind's last hope of salvation so please visit us at shopmercy.org or give us a call at 800-462-7426 thank you and may almighty god bless you you

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, catholic teaching, spiritual, spirituality, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, fr. alar, Catholic, Church, God, spiritual Communion, confession, fr. chris alar, divine mercy, mary, Holy Spirit, sacraments, service, salvation, Triduum, easter triduum, faith, holy Thursday, Easter, Easter vigil, good Friday, Lord's Supper, passion, Lord's passion

Id: 0vg_qhieMHY

Length: 66min 2sec (3962 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021